This invention relates to medical drainage devices and more particularly to a body fluid drainage device having a strap capable of supporting the device in various manners.
In body fluid drainage systems, such as a thoracic drainage system, a catheter is positioned in the pleural cavity of the patient and connected to a fluid drainage container or bottle. In the well-known "one-bottle" system, a bottle vented to atmosphere is provided with an initial amount of liquid and an inlet drainage tube that extends to a point near the bottom of the bottle and below the level of the liquid to provide a liquid seal between the atmosphere and the pleural cavity. One of the disadvantages of such an arrangement is that, as the level of liquid drainage rises above the lower end of the tube, the force necessary to expel fluid from the pleural cavity increases due to the increasing pressure head above the tube outlet. In order to avoid this increasing liquid head, the well-known "two-bottle" system employing a second bottle as a series liquid seal between the atmosphere or a source of vacuum and the first bottle may be used. In the latter arrangement, the drainage tube in the collection chamber is near the top of the bottle and is not immersed in the liquid.
The "two-bottle" arrangement is, of course, more complicated and requires more space. When such bottles are glass bottles, they are generally placed on the floor or other flat support because of the shape of the bottles and because they are relatively heavy. Such bottles are sometimes formed with a neck and jug-like finger hole on the neck for carrying the bottle. However, when supported by the finger hole, the bottle tilts because the hole is not on the vertical axis of the bottle. Thus, glass bottles are heavy, require considerable space, and the manner of positioning and supporting glass bottles of this type is practically limited generally to placing them on a flat support such as the floor of a room.